Story:Kings of Strife/Part 43
Part Forty-Three The only people who survived the Feast of Men were on Vainia’s skiff as it fled from the rocks of Grainis. Constantus Veit, Tlerius Rin, Tasshon el Divrus, Asearya Jyukyu, and Nolstuvainia Sestrum – the only survivors. The small vessel was just large enough to hold Vainia’s personal items and to slip out of Mortisian waters without detection, and the three able bodied men on the ship were all that was needed to make sure there was a constant lookout and a rower. The lookout stood watch over the skies to make sure the small ship was safe as it sailed north, always north, towards Shorica. Vainia was a lookout herself, endlessly watching backwards, staring at where they were coming from. There was no way to wash any of their clothes, so both Asearya and Tlerius had deep red blood stains over where they had been wounded. Asearya in her stomach and Tlerius in his shoulder. Both of them had received medical attention, the best that they could give themselves, and they would both live. Vainia had blood all over her clothes, but it did not come from her wounds. If anything, she felt weighed down and wet, always wet, dripping with the lifeblood of every other Mortisian. Fire billowed from Grainis even as the sun rose. Airships from Inusia darted back and forth over the palace and the surrounding nation, letting loose demonic eggs that split into hellfire. Vainia could hear the screams, at first, of the citizens in Grainis, as they burned. She swore she could hear them crying out – or maybe that was the whispers in her head, the same ones that empowered her hands and recited the runic incantations. No, she had to remind herself; that was not a disembodied voice. That was her. Vainia knew that she was the one who killed Mortis. At first she cried, occasionally moaning in agony that matched Asearya’s, but the princess went silent after she lost sight of the city and its flames. ‘I am a queen now, truly,’ she told herself numbly. ‘No longer a princess. My parents have died. The throne is mine by right. Even Magnus and Grandmother are dead.’ She was Queen of Ashes, without a kingdom or a throne to sit upon. Flames. Hell. She was fleeing from the hell of death to the hell of a fragmented life. It reminded her of a book she read, long ago in the halls of the palace library: “Which way I fly is hell; I myself am hell; And in the lowest deep a lower deep, Still threat’ning to devour me, opens wide…” ‘I am the Queen of Ashes, and my throne is an endless pit of hellfire.’ She did not speak for the entire three days that it took for her ship to arrive at the coast of Shorica. The entire vessel was hushed, shocked by the events they had all lived through, so much so that none of them bothered to ask how Veit had arrived or how he had saved them all. There was small talk, but none of the others dared to glance at their leader, let alone speak to her. Vainia was glad they respected her enough to do so. When they arrived on the sandy beach of Shorica, dawn was just beginning to show on the east, but the stars were still visible in the sky. There was no castle or city visible in the horizon, anywhere, and the land ahead stretched to both sides. After helping unload the boat and its passengers, Veit away from the sun and scowled. “It will be safer for us to walk to Shorekeep. We aren’t very far off from it.” Vainia started to walk to the west without a word, and her followers hesitantly followed with the same broken silence. “It won’t be long before the Inusians start to attack Shorica,” Tasshon eventually said. It was on everyone’s mind, except for Asearya, who was hovering in and out of consciousness. Veit had her on his back, moving effortlessly despite her weight. “We’ve got to get back to the city before then,” Tlerius stated. Of all the survivors besides Veit, he was taking the Feast with the least lamentation, although he had long since shed his silver cloak. It had been drenched in blood. “The army has to be raised. Whatever’s left of it, that is.” They had left Shorekeep with seven ships and three thousand soldiers, which was all of Shorica’s naval power and a good fraction of its most elite infantry. They were returning with only five survivors. The militia was down a large number of leaders, and their aerial strength was completely depleted. The only possible option was an advance on land, right through Inusia’s borders. To do so would be suicide. Thoughts of strategy and war left a new distaste in Vainia’s mouth. It tasted oily, like copper, like blood. There was something she could do, of course; there were many possible plans, and alliances she could still work out, even if her idea of taking Mortisian men had failed. Even if everything she had tried so far had failed. What was the point, anymore? Idly Vainia thought if this was a good time to stop. The world likely thought she had died in Grainis along with her men and her family. It wouldn’t take long for news to spread, especially considering Inusia would likely perpetuate the information happily. She was dead to the world. When else would she receive a chance to escape, abscond, and take off the crown? It was so heavy, weighing on her forehead eternally, and the blood of thousands was beginning to soak beneath her skin. She wanted to be free of it all, away from the pain and the death and the mistakes. Asearya finally spoke when a patch of forest became visible on the distant horizon. She stirred and turned to Vainia, opening her tear-encrusted eyes with clear pain. “Lady Vainia, are you unhurt?” The pained voice of her loyal servant sent shivers down the queen’s spine. This was the first time anyone had spoken to her since the Feast – everyone glanced back at her, yet Vainia kept her eyes forward to the sunrise. “I am unharmed,” she replied to Asearya with an equally shaking voice. “Thanks only to your devotion and strength, my maid. I cannot thank you enough.” She started to shake. Despite her pain, Asearya smiled with her eyes closed. “I require no such thanks, Lady Vainia. I would die for my queen. It is enough that you are unharmed.” ‘Your queen?’ Vainia thought. ‘I am not your queen. Not while you still live. I rule only over corpses.’ None of this nihilism escaped when she spoke, only hard sorrow like a storm of snow. “No… No. You won’t die. I forbid it.” She started to walk faster, so that her back was to everyone. Tears started to pool in her eyes and the queen’s voice tremored. “None of you will die for me. That’s an order. I forbid it…” She sniffed, and the tears fell freely. Her arms were crossed against her chest tightly, but still she visibly shook. The tears of the dead thousands drifted down her face and disappeared into the light mist of the morning. “No more deaths. Please…” No one responded. Veit held Asearya, Tasshon held the bag with the Crystal within it, and Tlerius held three bags of miscellaneous belongings, but even if their hands were full, none of the others would have dared to touch Vainia. None of them knew what to say, so they stayed silent and allowed their queen to weep. It hurt them all. So they continued to silently walk through the quiet Shorican landscape. Already, miles and miles away from the burning Mortisian shore, the air was different. Where Mortis held rocks and hostile heat, Shorica boasted gentle sand and salty breezes. Forests greeted them from behind the beaches and fertile hills lie just beyond that. Hours later, when the sun was high in the sky, the forest began to gift the party with enemies. They wore blue cloaks, and were in a squad of five. Veit noticed them first, and thought of ordering all of the group to hide until he realized that they were in the plains right off the beach. There was nowhere to hide or run. So he turned to Tlerius and started to hand Asearya’s body to the leader of the Eternal Corps. “No,” Vainia commanded, and she walked past Tasshon, who had stood in front of his queen as soon as he noticed the enemies. By now her face was stone and her eyes even harder. “Lady Vainia, what are you doing?!” Tasshon stepped forward to grab onto his queen’s arm, but she looked back at him with such ferocity that he froze. “I said no. I will handle them.” She turned back around and started to calmly walk towards the Inusians. The bluecoats met up to her within a few paces and the leader of them unsheathed his sword. He pointed the blade at Vainia, halting her from coming forward, and looked over the three men behind her that were glaring daggers. “Identify yourself, woman,” the leader of the Inusians said. He had unruly blond hair and careless stone gray eyes. “This is Shorica,” the queen replied calmly, her hands open at her sides. “What are Inusian men doing here?” The leader finally shifted his gaze over to Vainia with a sneer. “Who the hell do you think you are? I said identify yourself.” He raised the tip of his blade to touch beneath Vainia’s chin and took a step closer, pointing the cold metal to her throat. She didn’t flinch. He looked her over and noticed the faded blood all over her ruined dress. “Who are you people? Where did you come from?” Vainia looked up at the man with a glare, and the tips of her fingers started to glow with power. “A singular squad in the woods of Shorica. Scouts, are you?” After this sentence, she continued to move her mouth slightly, but she spoke no more to the men in front of her. The Inusian men started to advance upon her, and Tasshon started towards Vainia, who was now surrounded, but neither party made a move before the queen did. She raised an open hand towards the man holding a sword to her neck, and from her fingertips a small red circle of runic symbols emerged from thin air. Instantly, this circle shot out a small bolt of energy right to the bluecoat’s heart, and he instantly froze as his body fell backwards. Vainia stepped backwards, tracing a symbol into the air with her red-glowing right hand as she grabbed the sword from the dead man with her left. Two of the men started towards her with cries of anger, one man simply pulled his sword out in fear, and the other ran to his fallen blond leader with surprise. As soon as the two pursuers stepped forward, the circle Vainia drew on the ground began to glow with red light and grew instantly in size; once they both stepped forth into this circle, long swords made of matching red symbols and energy protruded from the ground, piercing into their bodies and staining their blue uniform with red, red, red. Next she looked up to the man faltering towards her with wide, fearful eyes and a sword extended in his hand. Vainia began to mutter another incantation as her grip tightened on the blade in her hands. The sword quickly cut into her skin and her blood began to fall down the metal, but after a moment she tossed the blade into the air. Her fingers shone with silver light that hid the blood on her hands, and next a string of silver runic chains burst into existence from her grip and coiled around the sword. She flicked her hand to the side, using the chains to extend the reach of the blade. The Inusian soldier, confused and scared, attempted to cut through the chains, but his sword went through them as if they were mist. The chains, unhindered, caused the sword to wrap around him from the back like a deadly snake biting its prey from behind. Inusian steel met Inusian flesh, and the fourth soldier fell to the ground with his leader’s sword embedded in his neck. The final soldier screamed and fled back into the forest. The threat was averted. Vainia lowered her arms and the glow from her fingers dissipated; her face was still hard as stone, and her green eyes even harder. Behind her, her three warriors walked up to her with shock, all of them at a loss for words. Even Veit, who knew of Vainia’s powers, had never seen her use them so viciously and without mercy. The bloody queen looked down at the men she had slaughtered within seconds without any emotion. Her hand stung, and for the first time she realized it hurt. “I have done it again,” she said. “But now they are perfected.” “The Inusians are already breaching territory,” Veit muttered, “but it looks like they won’t be able to make it very far in.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t have done that any better myself if I tried.” “What… What was that? Lady Vainia, how…” Tasshon could not vocalize his concerns, and Tlerius was stunned into silence. His eyes were wide like saucers, his mouth clamped shut tight enough to bring his cheekbones to a visible bulge. Vainia only turned to her Baron of War and held out her bloody hand. “I will hold that Crystal now,” she said before taking it. She held it in the crook of her arm and started wordlessly back for the west. ‘I am the Queen of Ashes,’ she thought to herself as the blood began to cake on her stinging hand. ‘Ashes and corpses.’ ***** The group returned to Shorekeep with little fanfare after their initial run-in with the Inusians. The city was not as Vainia left it. It hadn’t devolved into anarchy and chaos, which meant that the Revolutionary Council members that had stayed behind did their job well. From the soldiers periodically standing at their posts to the ongoing infrastructural repair to the air of normality in the Ocean City, Shorekeep did not seem to have changed very much; but Vainia still felt uneasy, as if she were a stranger in her own home. Truthfully she had no home anymore. Perhaps she had been the only one to change, the queen realized. She entered the city wearing Tasshon’s tattered cloak with the hood pulled forward. By the time the party arrived to the ancient stone walls of the Ocean City, Asearya had regained strength enough to walk, and all of her guardians escorted Vainia right to the gates of the Black Palace. Without a doubt the information that she had burned in the Feast of Men had traveled across the world many times by now, but if Vainia’s thoughts were correct, Baron Kamanus would be clever enough to keep that knowledge from infiltrating Shorica, for the most part. The results otherwise would undoubtedly be disastrous. The two soldiers wearing khaki uniforms at the gate stopped her and raised their rifles. For their credit, they looked intimidating and focused; Veit had done his job well. “No one enters the palace without business,” one of the gatesmen said. “Who are you and what are you here for?” Vainia looked up from beneath the red hood and crossed her arms. Her hands conspicuously curled into fists. “Nachtiubre… Do not stand in my way.” Before she could say or do anything, Asearya walked up from behind and put her hand on the queen’s shoulder, preventing her from lifting her hood or making any rash actions. “Ah, please excuse us, good sirs! We are but humble travelers seeking to supplicate the queen for room and counsel. Our journey has been a long and hard one.” The story wasn’t exactly a lie, but it didn’t match up with the dirty dresses and bloody khaki tunics that the entire group wore. The soldier looked over the grimy party with disgust. “The queen isn’t in right now. And what the hell kind of travels were you going on?” Growling with impatience, shirtless Veit started to move forward, but both Tasshon and Tlerius stood in front of him. “We’ve been through a lot, sir,” Tlerius said in an uncharacteristically pleading voice. “Please, allow us to see the Revolutionary Council if Queen Vainia is out. We’ve heard tales of their genius and hospitality across the entire nation.” Veit looked over the two shorter men with enraged eyes, but when Vainia glanced back at him, he allowed his rage to cool. Reluctantly, the guardsman waved away the rifles and nodded towards the lavish entrance of the castle. “Come on, then. I’ll escort you. One wrong move out of anyone and I’ll pump you full of lead.” The party went inside at his command with Asearya giving thanks along the way. Once they passed the black seastone columns bordering the entrance and entered the polished interior, Asearya looked around and failed miserably at hiding her wonder. “How magnificent it is here! Minimalistic, yet elegant. Truly fitting for a queen.” She glanced back at the escort soldier hesitantly before holding onto Vainia’s arm and whispering into her ear. “Is this truly all for you, Lady Vainia? All built in your name, by these people?” A different kind of wonder shone in Asearya’s gaze now. Vainia nodded gravely. “Yes.” It made sense that her maid and best friend didn’t really grasp the extent of what had been accomplished so far, considering she had been away in Mortis this entire time. ‘Away in Mortis. Back home.’ Vainia remembered that home no longer existed, not there, and she pursed her full lips. “Back when I was the Queen of more than just ashes.” She thought of her self-imposed title in its Refined High Mortisian equivalent: ‘yavna avn shivi’. ‘I am the Queen of Ashes and Corpses. ‘Valtiuv an yavna avn shivi’.’ Somehow the title fit her even more when she thought of it in the tongue of her lost ancestors. They arrived at the throne room on the second floor of the palace before long. “If any Barons are meeting, they’d be in here,” the soldier said gruffly as he looked around. “There would be an Eternal Corps member out here if there were, so I’m not sure. You all can check inside, and if there isn’t anyone there, come back out. You’ve got five minutes.” Vainia only nodded as she opened the heavy wooden door and walked inside, followed by her small entourage. ‘Valtiuv an yavna avn shivi.’ When she saw what was occurring on the seat of her ugly golden throne and heard the wooden door creak close behind her last entering confidant, Vainia lowered her hood and felt light start to gather in her fingertips. She knew now that she was about to become the ruler of two more corpses. Razmid looked at the queen with wide eyes and immediately pulled his manhood out of the naked girl bent over the armrest of the throne. “Q-Queen Vainia?! You’re alive?!” The girl screamed and jumped behind the tall golden seat as the Baron of Treasury zipped up his black pants and gulped. The room erupted into motion. Reacting to the scream, the guard from earlier slammed the door open and raised his rifle. Constantus Veit anticipated this; immediately he punched the soldier in his neck, right below the ear. His jaw was crushed instantly, and the guard screamed louder than the naked girl as he threw his rifle into the air and spit out a slaw of blood and teeth. Upon seeing Baron Arensten, Tasshon ran to his fellow Baron and slammed him against the wall in frustration; Tlerius only rubbed his temples and sighed. Vainia raised her hands ever so slightly and began to mumble beneath her breath. Asearya was the only one who caught on to the dangerous motions of the Queen. She rushed to Vainia’s side and forcefully lowered her arms with wide eyes. “Lady Vainia, you mustn’t!” She knew not what Vainia could do, but the maid hadn’t felt such dangerous fear in her gut since the Feast of Men. Her stomach wound had instantly started to tingle with unearthly pain. “Please. Do not cause any bloodshed. Not here. Not on your throne. Forgive him.” The new queen looked up to her best friend, and for a moment Asearya swore her eyes glowed with paroxysm and power. “Why should I spare his life? This reikravn disrespected me to the highest degree. I will paint the walls with his blood.” “No, Lady Vainia,” pleaded Asearya. She pulled the queen close and looked deeply into her decidedly green eyes. “Please. Don’t let this consume you. There is much more to do.” Vainia held Asearya’s gaze for a long while before allowing the light to dissipate from her fingers. The chaos in the room had quieted down by now; Razmid had a bloody nose and a black eye, the girl stood in his jacket and covered her sex, and the guard was unconscious in a puddle of his spit, blood, and gore. Everyone was looking at the two women with anticipation. Razmid was the first to speak. He took a hesitant step forward, sniffing a drop of blood back into his nostrils, and raised his hands in supplication. “Please forgive me, Queen Vainia. I… My actions can’t be excused. But everything is as it should be. The city is fine. In your absence, nothing has failed. The soldier’s ranks have been increasing steadily. Budgets are up. I’ve been working sleepless nights, my Queen! Once the world finds out you’re alive, no one will be able to stand against you! Queen of Shorica now, Queen of the world tomorrow!” He laughed hesitantly, but was just as frozen as everyone else in attendance was. Silently, Vainia walked forward. Razmid stood to her side, his hands and eyebrows still raised, but she walked right past him until she was a step in front of her golden throne. Sweat on its golden stone glistened in the light from the tall windows of the chamber. Here Vainia stopped and turned slightly towards all the members of the room standing around her. Her fingertips started to glow with red light once again. “The world will not hear that I survived. I died when Mortis did,” she said with a flat and soft tone. “My only subjects are ashes and corpses. Yavna avn shivi.” She traced an olden shape into the air and raised her left hand towards the throne behind her. Instantly, an explosion of light and runic alphabet symbols burst into existence around her hand, and from these etherized a large transparent sword. With two swings of her arm, Vainia slammed the blade into the throne, and the red sword effortlessly cut the graceless throne into chunks of golden debris. The entire room could only watch silently as Vainia lowered her hand and allowed the runes to fade away from her hand. She kicked a small piece of golden stone to the Baron of Treasury. “I am your Queen no more.” ***** The open-air balcony outside the throne room had a view over the sea leading into the Queen’s Gulf, and watching over it stood Asearya Jyukyu. When she wasn’t working, the maid-slash-ambassador loved to stand out here on the balcony the most, second in her favorite parts of the Black Palace only to her former queen’s chambers. The sea calmed her, apparently, as did the fact that she was still in the home of a royal. She wanted only to serve. Baron of War Tasshon el Divrus stood up from the recently concluded Revolutionary Council meeting and nodded at all his fellow Barons. They went their separate ways almost immediately – hard faced Martessa walked out of the room briskly, Kamanus left while talking to one of his petite spies that erupted from a shadow in the room, Razmid walked out afterwards whistling with his hands in his pockets, and Jütenas silently lowered the brim of their hat as they left afterwards. Tasshon stood and stayed in the room, taking a moment to look over the chamber where his queen once ruled. Forty-five days had passed since the self-proclaimed Queen of Ashes and Corpses declared a chamber be built beneath the Palace for her personal purposes, and forty-three days since she entered the newly built room. She had not surfaced since. None had seen Noltsuvainia Sestrum ever since – none other than her maid, Asearya Jyukyu. To all the world, the Rebel Queen perished in the fall of Mortis’ capital, Grainis, the tragic accident resulting from an overzealous celebratory feast. The Mortisian royals died as they lived: bodaciously and ambitiously. Only a handful of people around the world knew the truth. Tasshon was one of them. He readjusted the stiff collar of his Baron uniform and started walking towards the door of the room’s balcony. As he did, the Baron of War grabbed his rough red cloak from the back of his chair and draped it around his shoulders. He was the only one who wore a red cloak around the Palace now. Shortly after the queen’s rejection, her personal Knight and Tasshon’s personal mentor had abandoned Shorekeep – now the official new capital of Shorica – and walked, by himself, to the east. He was on a mission that only himself and the Revolutionary Council knew of. To all the world, the Knight Constantus Veit fled in disgrace when his queen perished. Tasshon was one of the few who knew the truth. Keeping control of the city without the charismatic presences of Vainia or Veit had been extremely difficult, but the Barons managed. Vainia had served an admirable purpose as a martyr, and rumors of Inusian foul play towards her death fueled Shorican fire. The militia was strong and concentrated mostly in the west, Tasshon had made sure. For some reason, the Inusians had not advanced on the Shorican border – many believed they showed much less aggression towards the peninsula nation due to the death of its leader. Inusian airships could be seen near Shorican coasts most hours of the day, but they never usually hung around Shorekeep. A fragile peace had taken hold of the two nations, with each day that it prolongs coming as a surprise to both sides. All parties involved knew the peace would not last. Tasshon kept the thinning red cloak around his body as he opened the door to the balcony. Temperate sea breezes flew inside as soon as he cracked the glass of the door, blowing his midnight blue hair around his eyes. The tall Baron kept his jaw tight and walked next to Asearya. With a short-cropped leather jacket around her minimalistic black-and-white maid outfit, Asearya handled cold much worse than anyone else, despite the fact that spring was oncoming. He couldn’t really blame her; the climate of Shorica was much colder than Mortis’ dry heat, although it didn’t hold a candle to the snow-bearing winters of eastern Inusia. “How is she?” Tasshon asked as he stood next to the maid and laid his hands on the cold seastone rail. The sun would be setting soon, he could tell. The waning crescent moon was already starting to become visible in the melancholy blue of the evening sky. “It’s almost time, I think,” Asearya said. Tasshon looked down at her and waited for her to continue, but she did not oblige for a short while, and she kept her stone grey eyes forward. “How was the meeting?” She asked, instead. The Baron of War crossed his arms, resisting the urge to anxiously bite his lip. “It went. We’re still surviving, but none of us know for how much longer. The longer we wait, the worse our situation gets.” “Our army grows by the day,” the white-haired servant said with a slight tilt of her head. A month had passed since a large ship filled to the brim of thousands of Mortisian sailors and peasants had secretly drifted into the harbors of Shorekeep. Every man and woman aboard stated that they had come to fight in Vainia’s memory. They had left the harbors of four Mortisian cities simultaneously, altogether setting forth with an exodus of equal parts would-be soldiers and refugees numbering close to a million. Every ship but the sole surviving one had been sunk by patrolling Inusian airships. “We need more than an army,” Tasshon said bitterly. “We need a leader.” He had done the calculations, pored over the maps, and theorized the strategies countless times in the last forty days. It was his job, after all, as the Baron of War – but no matter how he tried, he could never come up with an effective enough war tactic that wouldn’t result in total slaughter. No matter how he looked at it, the Inusians outclassed them in every aspect, and the incident at Icarun had proven to them and the world that no country would truly ally with the Mortisians. Asearya smiled despite the situation. “Then the time has come. It’s up to me at this point, isn’t it?” “Yes. I’m afraid we don’t have any other options anymore. But… will you really be able to do it?” “Of course. I know the queen like the back of my hand.” She noticed Tasshon’s hesitation when she mentioned Vainia’s royal title. “I predicted the visit quite well, then. Yes, she will be the queen again. I will make sure of it.” Tasshon looked over to Asearya and took a step towards her. “I don’t know about this plan of yours.” “I do. No one knows Vainia better than I do. This is what she needs.” “Perhaps, but… Is it really something we should be doing?” The Baron of War gently held onto Asearya’s forearm and frowned. “I don’t want to kill anyone who doesn’t have to lose their life.” The maid laughed. “Says the Baron of War to a queen that wants to eradicate an entire nation.” She looked up to Tasshon with a smile and earnest grey in her eyes. “That’s what I like about you, at times. But we don’t have a choice. Not anymore.” “I suppose you’re right.” He attempted curling his thin lips into a smile, but only succeeded in making himself look more downcast. The harshness of ruling had taken its toll on all of them, gentle-hearted Tasshon perhaps the most. “Shall I bring in the crowd? How long do I have?” Asearya crossed her arms confidently and let her eyes sweep once more on the oncoming sunset. “An hour. Have every citizen in Shorekeep as close to the courtyard as you can, beneath the front balcony. She will appear there.” Tasshon nodded and started walking to the glass door leading back into the throne room. “This is our last hope,” he said definitively. It was a fact known to all. Just as he opened the door, a loud knock was heard on the door to the meeting chamber, and the commanding voice of an Eternal Corps member resounded throughout. Tasshon turned and looked to Asearya’s silhouette framed by the light of the sunset. “Your guests are here.” ***** A knock rang through the dark chamber. Its only answer was minutes of silence before the person behind the heavy iron door decided to knock again, harder. The metal clang of a blade hilt tapping on the door slithered from beneath the door immediately afterwards, making clear that the person knocking was one of the three people in the Black Palace who knew the secret signal for urgent business. Silence responded in kind, before the knock and the signal repeated itself a second time. Vainia looked up from beneath her dark hair and stared holes into the door. “Enter,” she croaked. The door opened with a measured slowness, and in walked three familiar figures. Asearya Jyukyu stepped forward into the pitch black chamber, alighting it with the candle she held in her off-hand. With the medium-sized chamber illuminated, the three visitors were able to see the state of the environment around them. Asearya frowned; the two taller, hooded figures behind her gasped quietly. Former Queen Nolstuvainia Sestrum VIII sat cross-legged on a golden chunk of debris, likely retrieved from the throne room when she destroyed her royal chair. In one hand she held a lighter; the other was holding onto a yellowed skull. Behind her, two golden rocks of debris stood carved into miniature pedestals, atop which sat two Crystals, one a translucent brown and the other a murky sea green. Beneath her in close proximity lay almost eight naked males, all prostrated and asleep – perhaps unconscious – in various positions of disarray. Bodily fluids were caked around many of their faces. On the rough walls of the black seastone chamber were pieces of various colored paper, taped and stapled so numerously that the color of parchment almost overtook the darkness of the room’s construction. The papers contained maps drawn of every region in the world, furiously outlined lines of prose and directions, and drawings of flaming castles. “Good evening, Lady Vainia,” Asearya said calmly. She performed a short and flawless curtsy before looking her ruler in the eye. Vainia responded with a nod. She wore nothing more than a black robe over her body, and although it covered the space between her open legs, the curvaceous slope of her ample breasts were visible. Her nipples were only barely held in modest cover. She did not seem to care. “Who are these people you bring before me, Asearya?” “They are very important guests that came all this way to see you, Lady Vainia.” “I am dead. They came to see a corpse.” Abruptly one of the figures behind Asearya moved to remove his hood, but the maid elbowed him in the chest with her free arm and glared back at him. “No revealing yourself until I say you may, and no speaking, either. I told you this. Disobey me and you’ll die.” The man’s white hands stayed poised over the hood for a moment, clearly hesitating before lowering. The hooded men nodded slightly. The queen looked the exchange over from beneath her hair and flicked a fire alive in the lighter in her hands. “You’ve become more aggressive lately, Asearya,” she said simply. The maid smiled demurely in response. “I’ve learned from what you’ve taught me, Lady Vainia.” The maid’s grey eyes looked over the former queen’s body hungrily. “I see you’ve left the others worn out again.” “Of course. I am beginning to lose pleasure with them. It seems everything I thought I loved is fated to only bring me misery. "You don’t enjoy them anymore, my lady?” "No. They bore me. This whole business bores me.” This was Asearya’s chance, Vainia realized all too late, and the maid smiled lustfully. “That makes sense, Lady Vainia. Living down here being a hermit is not your destiny. We’ve all known a long time ago, as well, that you’re not one for physical titillation. You know what it is you enjoy the most.” The former queen’s expression darkened further, if at all possible. “No, I only enjoy the sex remotely if you’re the one pleasuring me, of course. My grandmother lived in her chamber for years. It is my fate, as well. She prophesized it. “You, too, will become blind one day.” It was the last thing she told me, and I didn’t even hear it from her in person.” “You are not Lady Nolterya, Gott rest her soul,” Asearya continued gently. “You are more.” “I am less.” Vainia’s only response was a hushed whimper. “Valtiuv an yavna avn shivi.” It was a phrase she long ago began to regularly say: ‘I am a Queen of Ashes and Corpses.’ “More than that,” Asearya replied with a devilish smile. “Valtiuv an tuumis alt kreius.” ‘You are Queen of the Throne and the World,’ she said. Vainia was silent, but she looked away and averted her eyes beneath her freely hanging long brown hair. Asearya took this moment to turn and nod at both of her guests. They took her signal without any hesitation and promptly lowered their hoods. Vainia did not bother to look up at them. Asearya had foolishly brought two intruders to her private chamber unannounced; they would not live to tell the world what they saw, without a doubt. The former queen sighed as her free hand began to slightly glow with light. “I knew you weren’t dead. Everyone said otherwise, but somehow I knew.” This voice was hopeful – and familiar. Losing her focus momentarily, Vainia looked up to see Prince Magnus Lee standing behind Asearya, along with a taller man around the same age with short black hair and a goatee. Magnus turned to this man with a smile. “You see! I told you she lived!” Silent wrath pushed Vainia’s hands into tight, glowing fists. She stood, the black cloth around her shifting to cover up most of her body except her scowling face. “How could you bring them here, Asearya?” The maid licked her lips and tried to hold a strong countenance. “Hear me out, my lady. Speak with them. I beseech you.” Vainia glared at Asearya before turning her gaze over the two men staring at her. “I know who that traitor bastard is, but who is the other one? He is familiar.” She looked the taller man right in his deep brown eyes. Neither of them flinched from the intense gaze. “I am Gnever Maebyss. Son of High Lord Maebyss of Inusia.” Unexpectedly a terrifying laugh trickled from Vainia’s lips. She opened her hands and grabbed on her forehead with them, bending over slightly with the manic power behind her amusement. “Asearya, I’ve mistaken you! How foolish could I be to think you could ever disappoint or betray me? You’ve worked to reignite my will to live by bringing me sacrifices. Yes, this is magnificent. I will enjoy their slaughter.” The son of Inusia’s borderline dictator stepped forward, his chest and chin pushed out strongly. “We are not here to die. She may be alive, Magnus, but she’s clearly deranged.” “You’re wrong, Gnever!” The blond prince walked briskly to Vainia’s side and put his arm around her waist. “We’ve come to save you, bethrothed. Something told me you survived, and now that you have, we can be married in peace. Gnever here says he can make sure we live in peace, as long as you marry me and we agree to become non-combatant members of the World Government. It’s simple! Please. Too many people have died already. Listen to me, now.” The former queen looked up at her arranged relative with disbelief and sheer confusion. “What did you say? Are… Are you serious?” “Of course I am!” He looked down to Vainia pleadingly. ‘He cares about me,’ Vainia realized for the first time. ‘He’s showing genuine concern.’ “Please,” Magnus continued, “I don’t want to lose you, too.” “He’s telling the truth.” The heir to Inusia crossed his arms and nodded grudgingly. “I can guarantee your survival, if you conform. Are you really going to refuse that? Are you really going to dash you and all your followers to their deaths?” The words slapped Vainia in the face, and her mouth curled downwards in pure disgust. “You don’t think I can win, even if I do resist.” Her fingers started to glow with runic light once again. His hard face betrayed no emotion, but Vainia knew she was right. “Inusia’s military population is many times larger than that of Shorica, not to mention the fact that it has allies across the entire world. Ours is an empire that has lasted for 800 years. It is unshakeable.” “My Lady, please.” Magnus held onto both of her hands. “I want you to teach me Refined High. I want us to rule together until we are as old as Lady Nolterya, rest her soul.” Asearya spoke abruptly. “Tell them what you’ve been thinking of this entire time, Lady Vainia.” She stepped forward calmly and removed Magnus’ hands from her queen’s arms. Beneath her feet, one of the naked men stirred in his sleep. Vainia lowered her face and her visage darkened. She was shaking. “No matter how hard I tried, I could never get them out of my head. The castles. The thrones. Every time I close my eyes, I can’t see anything but myself sitting on them. Frowning. This isn’t what I want. None of it is.” Maebyss nodded and Magnus smiled. “We know, beloved. No one wants this much death. It isn’t right. Now, just come with –” The former queen cut him off mercilessly. “I spent a lot of time thinking. There are almost 200 million people living in the most populated regions of northern Inusia. Shorica has a total population close to 100 million people. Mortis had 35 million. I risk all of their lives in my conquests – almost 350 million people, their lives all at stake for the ambition of one woman. For my ambition. I thought, is it worth it? Am I willing to do that? Could I live with that?” All of the dark chamber looked at the woman expectedly, and a heavy silence melded with the permeable darkness for a long moment until she continued. "I thought about it, and my answer is yes. Every time I wondered this, my answer is always yes.” She snapped her fingers and the papers all along the walls lit up from runes behind them. With a cry of “Damnit!”, Maebyss stepped backwards and pulled a long knife from beneath his disguising robes, whereas Magnus simply looked up at the walls in awe. In contrast, Asearya only looked to her queen with satisfaction. So far, everything was going according to her plan. The gray-haired slim woman crossed her arms and smiled. "If either of you make another step, you’ll be skewered and ripped to pieces. You will be the first of the deaths I will bring about,” Vainia said confidently. She wasn’t boasting; her lips were almost curled inward from sheer anger. She was promising. Gnever Maebyss frowned deeply at Vainia and slowly pointed his knife to Asearya’s neck. “Don’t think I came here unprepared. If you make any moves, I’ll throw this knife right into your little maid’s neck. I won’t miss. And if I don’t return to my travel scouting party within an hour, they have strict orders to return to Inusia and tell my father that I died. You and your country will be ruined in a day.” Now, once again, Vainia laughed unexpectedly. “As if I would be foolish enough not to anticipate such a thing. You think I really haven’t coated every surface of this room with runes many times over?” She spoke a single word of ancient power and the ground beneath all of their feet started to glow with blue light. Maebyss swore and moved to throw his knife, but as soon as he started the move the circle beneath him flashed, and he went as still as a statue. Magnus looked at his frozen companion with wide eyes. “What have you done? Princess Vainia, what have you done?!” “You must hurry, my lady,” Asearya said nonchalantly as she looked at her pocket watch. “There are more guests waiting for you outside the castle. They are more pleasing guests, I assure you.” She picked up a previously discarded pile of black and red clothing. “Not to mention I still have to make sure you’re presentable.” The woman in question took a step forward and crossed her arms. “You’ve really left me no choice, have you, Asearya? I suppose I’ll have to return to these two later, when I’m finished conversing with those outside.” Vainia glanced back at Magnus and snapped her fingers; instantly the ground beneath him flashed with the same blue light, and the appointed prince found himself frozen, as well. He was still conscious, and was still able to piss himself in fear when he looked into the sheer hatred within Vainia’s momentarily glowing golden eyes. “I will return, and I will make your death as vicious as possible.” There was no response. She turned and crossed her arms, silently seething, after stepping in front of Asearya and shedding her robe. The maid wore a content smile as she dressed her queen in a red skirt, black leggings, and a tight black jacket that stepped at her midriff. “You really did come prepared, Asearya,” the former queen said. Her countenance was still one of anger; of concentration; of royalty. Her maid could only smile in response. The Black Palace was completely empty. Although she was following Asearya upstairs, Vainia still knew the layout of her castle like the back of her hand. Was it still her castle? Did she still have a right to know it? ‘Yes. The answer has always been yes.’ She had been a fool to deny it. They stopped on the farthest facing room on the second floor. Asearya turned and looked at Vainia in front of the glass door, obscuring its view; even so, Vainia could hear a distant murmur from outside that suggested people outside. Lots and lots of people. “This is your last chance, Lady Vainia. If you go outside, there will be no more running from the throne. I will stand by you no matter what you choose to do with your life, but the next time the world thinks you’ve passed… we will both have left this world.” The queen looked her best friend in the face. Both of them already knew the answer. “Open the door, please, Asearya.” Her maid obliged with pure content. “For the Queen’s glory.” She opened the door, and the midnight blue sky was the first to greet the queen. Vainia stepped forward onto the balcony, squinting at the light of the outside world, and immediately gasps and cheers erupted from all around her. When her eyes had adjusted, Vainia looked out and saw what appeared to be every one of the 3 million people in Shorekeep, all looking up at the balcony of the Black Palace. They were crammed into the palace’s courtyard and beyond, with people crowding down every street for miles. Vainia stepped forward. On the balcony beside her stood every Baron of her Revolutionary Council, and directly beneath the balcony she could see nine people looking up at her with silver cloaks on their shoulders. The general population looked shocked when they all saw the former queen looking down upon them – soon it registered with cries of incredulation, screaming surprise, moans and phrases shot at her as if from a cannon. The secret had been kept well, she knew; they had truly thought she was dead. They were wrong. They were all wrong. She raised her hands, and eventually the cacophony of the massive audience before her quieted. She took another step forward, pushing her bangs straight backwards in a style similar to Asearya’s. Unlike before, at Zeta and at the Inusian Communication Agency, she was not nervous. There was no need to be. These were her people. Now, everyone was hers. “My people,” Queen Nolstuvainia Sestrum VIII began, “I have never once tasted death upon my lips. Thank you for your patience and endurance – now you will be rewarded. Now we will all be rewarded. Join me in living! Join me in destroying the tyrannical empire that mercilessly burned my home, my family, and so many of our brothers and sisters. Join me in my war against all of the world!” ...End of Part Forty-Three. <- Previous Page | Main Page | Next Page - Global War Arc ->